"It's not only an important issue to me, but it's an important issue to my family because when my father's sister was in college, she was sexually assaulted," said Gaga (via People). "Then, it tormented her so emotionally that it caused the lupus that she had to get so bad that she died."

She went on to explain how the incident "affected my family really tremendously" and that the tragedy became "one of the centerpieces of our family."

"So this song means so much to me and so much to my parents," Gaga said.

The 29-year-old singer has opened up in the past about being the victim of sexual assault herself.

During an interview with Howard Stern in December 2014, Gaga said that her song "Swine" was about rape, and revealed that she was victimized when she was 19 years old, but that she wasn't willing to discuss the event publicly for years because she didn't want to let it define her or her music.